First Fridays Science Discussion | Natural History Museum Of Los Angeles

Darwin's is best known for his theory of natural selection which explains how organisms evolve adaptations for survival. His second theory, sexual selection, attempts to describe why males and females of the same species can differ so markedly, and why the sexes can have traits that decrease their ability to survive. Dr. Michael Ryan, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and zoology professor at the University of Texas, Austin, reviews our understanding of sexual behavior in animals, including humans.

Why do we look the way we do? The answers to this question come from seemingly strange places: from the bodies, fossils and DNA of everything from microbes to worms and fish. Dr. Neil H. Shubin is a paleontologist and Associate Dean of Organismal and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago. He'll guide guests through the discovery of a key link between fish and amphibians, and how this ancient event informs the basic structure of the human body.

In recent years, the topics of evolution, creationism and "intelligent design" have become more controversial than ever. Creationists make lot of false claims about the fossil record and the evidence from "transitional forms" that demonstrate the evolution of new groups of animals. In this lecture, Dr. Don Prothero, Professor of Geology at Occidental College and Lecturer in Geobiology at Caltech, looks at the evidence for evolution from the fossil record, the documentation of important "transitional fossils" discovered over the past 20 years, and the implications of evolution for science and society

Using little-known letters, diaries, and notebooks, writer Lyanda Lynn Haupt explores Darwin's own evolution - from his beginning as a fumbling neophyte student of the natural world to his emergence as an original, creative naturalist who could draw complex scientific truths from the observation of life around him.